Childish War
by Rylitah
Summary: Kuroba Kaito has the next big stage of his life planned: he'll ask out his awesome neighbor, Shinichi; he'll say yes, they'll get together, and it'll be great. There's only one problem - and it isn't Shinichi. No, it's his overprotective devil of a little brother who seems to hate Kaito's guts for no reason - Edogawa Conan. This is a war Kaito doesn't intend to lose. / Kaishin.
1. In the Left Corner

"_I think it would do you some good, you know – to just go out there and have fun. Make some new friends. I know these past few months have been hard on you, I do, but… we can't keep dwelling on what's already happened, Kaito. What's in the past is in the past. You know that, right? That's why we made this move. To… move on, you know. So can you do this for me?_"

Kuroba Kaito sighed, absentmindedly flexing his fingers and maneuvering the handle of his school bag between them. "I got it, mom," he droned into his phone. "I have to leave the house now though, or else I'll be late. I'll call you when I get home. Talk to you later." His thumb pressed down on the 'end call' button before the person on the other side of the line could reply, and he stood to swing open his front door.

It was a bright and sunny day, with not a single cloud in the sky. Spring was already in full effect, the last tendrils of winter already melted away. It would seem like a great day to be in a good mood, but Kaito most certainly was not.

It seemed that his life had slowed to a snail's crawl when his father died in an accident a little over half a year ago. He and his father were very close, and Kaito couldn't imagine a life without him – even eight months later, Kaito still felt his old man's presence, as if he would welcome his son home with a shower of confetti and feathers every day he returned from school. Kaito couldn't let go.

And so his mother proposed a move.

Of course, whenever she said 'we', she really just meant Kaito by himself as she was too busy taking advantage of her newfound freedom to fly around the world and see new sights. Kaito was too young for that sort of thing, she had said, and so bought him a house in Beika where he'd live alone while she continued to pay for the monthly bills.

Kaito didn't really mind.

It was the first time he was going to school in eight months, with a new uniform and different people. He'd have to put up a false front to make sure no one would realize that he wasn't as happy as he should be, though he briefly wondered if acting detached would make people leave him alone. He used to be an uncontrollable prankster – nothing that would harm people, of course, just enough to make them angry. And needing a shower or two. Or seven.

"Alright, I'm off! See you after school! Remember to come straight home, alright? That convict is still on the loose, and I don't want you out here alone." A voice caught his attention as he walked down the sidewalk, and the depressed teen turned his head to see someone in the same uniform as himself standing in the doorway of the house neighboring Kaito's, speaking to someone much smaller.

"I understand," a childish voice answered. "Have a good day at school, Shinichi-niichan!"

The door closed, and the teenager stood to his full height and turned—

To see Kaito's wide-eyed expression directed at him.

"Um…" the teenager shifted on his feet, feeling uncomfortable. "Can I… help you?"

Kaito blinked, not registering the other's words for a moment. This guy looked almost exactly like him! Sure, the hairstyle was a bit different (Kaito doubted he could get his own hair to look like that without a _very_ liberal application of hair gel), and the eye colors weren't quite the same, but other than that they could be twins.

"You look like me," was the first thing that tumbled out of his mouth.

The stranger blinked and smiled sheepishly. "I… I guess we do look a bit similar. What's your name?"

"Kuroba Kaito." He pointed to the house adjacent to the one they both stood in front of. "I just moved in over there."

His doppelganger turned his head to see, and finally started to relax. "Ah, that explains why I haven't seen you around before. Nice to meet you, Kuroba-kun. I'm Kudou Shinichi." The stranger – Kudou Shinichi – held his hand out in greeting.

Kaito took it dumbly and gave it a weak shake. "Uh. Kaito's fine."

"Alright then, Kaito. Shinichi's alright with me as well. Since this is the first time I've ever seen you, you probably haven't been to the school yet. I'll show you around once we get there. Is that alright?"

"Yeah, that's… fine. Just fine."

And the two took off, neither of them noticing a tiny blue eye peeking out of the curtains behind the glass windows of the Kudou residence.

* * *

Kaito quickly found that he really liked this Shinichi guy.

It was easy to warm up to him, and he found himself talking freely about things he didn't expect to just that morning. He refused to tell Shinichi the reason he moved – he didn't think the other really deserved to know that just yet, but he could easily see the other teen as someone he could be friends with.

Of course, just as Shinichi had come to know a few select things about Kaito, Kaito got to learn a few things about Shinichi as well.

He learned that Shinichi was an excellent soccer player who had no intentions of going pro; his life aspiration was to become the world's greatest detective. His model and hero was Sherlock Holmes. Kaito was slightly amused at the thought of having a fictional character as a role model, but Shinichi had blushed and said that there wasn't a problem with it, which Kaito eventually agreed to.

There were also things he found out that Shinichi didn't explicitly tell him, but Kaito simply observed. He was easily flustered, if the earlier blush was anything to go by. When Kaito mentioned looking up female skirts to announce the color of their underwear to the world, Shinichi had gone bright red and quickly stammered into a new subject, but not before warning him that he really shouldn't try something like that on the girls at Teitan High.

"I'm used to dodging blows," Kaito had shrugged. "I'll be fine." They didn't talk any more about it.

Kaito had also observed that Shinichi was very meticulous in everything he did, from absentmindedly yet constantly passing his school bag between his hands to keep the weight load in both arms evenly distributed, to the amount of steps he took on each section of the sidewalk.

He was almost disappointed when they finally appeared in front of their school, and they were just wrapping up their conversation.

"I have a little brother," Shinichi said with a fond smile on his face. "His name is Conan. He's a cute kid, looks almost exactly like a mini-me with glasses. He's kind of childish sometimes, though I've had people tell me he's pretty scary and serious when I'm not around. I can't really imagine him without a smile on his face, so I really don't know what they're talking about. I think they're just messing with me." He shrugged.

"Is he who you were talking to when you left this morning?" Kaito asked, though he already knew the answer.

"Yeah," Shinichi replied. "It's just the two of us living in that house. Mom and Dad are pretty famous, so they spend most of their time touring the world. They come home sometimes, but for the most part it's just Conan and me." He didn't sound bitter about his parents at all, Kaito noted. It wouldn't be a good opportunity to bring up his own, then.

"Shinichi!" A voice Kaito didn't recognize, a feminine one, called out with a touch of anger. A girl with long hair ran up to them, and Kaito—

He blanched. She looked almost exactly like Aoko, his best friend from Ekoda. _This is insane_, he thought. _Am I going to find a carbon copy of Hakuba too?_ He shuddered. He most certainly hoped not.

"Where were you, stupid?!" She tried whacking Shinichi upside the head with her school bag, but Shinichi dodged it with ease that suggested he had had years of practice. "I was waiting in front of your house for ten minutes before Conan-kun came out and told me you already left! What happened to walking to school together, huh?"

"Sorry, sorry," Shinichi laughed and jerked a thumb in Kaito's direction. "It's Kaito's first day at school here, and I thought I'd show him around. I completely forgot all about you, actually."

"Jerk!" This time she really did hit Shinichi with her bag, and turned to face Kaito with a shy smile. "Hello! Kaito, huh? O-oh, sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Mouri Ran, but since you and Shinichi are already apparently on a first name basis…" she narrowed her eyes at the snickering teen next to her. "… You can just call me Ran."

"Nice to meet you, milady," Kaito bent over and presented a rose from seemingly nowhere, gently easing it in her hands. "I didn't know Shin-chan had such a beautiful girlfriend!"

That got quite an interesting reaction.

"We're not together!" They both blurted out, hands waving frantically. The rose floated gently to the ground, where Kaito picked it up and just as easily made it disappear. "We're just good friends, is all."

"My mom knows his mom," Ran craned her head towards Shinichi. "We've been friends since we were little, but that doesn't mean we're interested in each other. I'd probably go insane, living with this guy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shinichi frowned. "Who would want to live with you nagging at them all the time?"

"I don't nag! At least I wouldn't bore my husband to death going on and on about Sherlock Holmes all the time," Ran huffed, crossing her arms. "And I wouldn't worry him by constantly disappearing behind his back, not telling him anything and not making any contact except for one phone call every month or so!"

That was oddly specific, Kaito noted. His suspicions were confirmed when Shinichi looked away with a layer of guilt crossing his face. "I said I was sorry," he mumbled.

Ran's face softened, and she raised her hand up to ruffle her friend's hair. "It's alright. It doesn't matter now anyway. What's in the past is in the past, right?"

Kaito blinked. Where had he heard those words before…? Ah, right. His mother had spoken them not even an hour ago on the phone.

Seems like Shinichi has his own secrets as well, the teenager mused.

"Either way," Shinichi changed the subject. The three of them finally started walking in the school and were making their way to the shoe lockers. "Aren't you seeing someone now anyway, Ran?"

"That's right," she smiled. "Dad and I met him on a case in Gunma."

"Gunma? That's pretty far from here," Kaito whistled. "What were you doing there?"

"My dad's a detective," Ran said with a twinkle of pride in her eyes. "He gets cases all the time, taking him all over Japan!"

"Right," Shinichi droned. "I never realized one or two cases a week was 'all the time'."

"Shut up, stupid," she hit him lightly with her bag again. "Anyway, turns out he was called for the same case, and we really hit it off over there. He's a foreigner, so he's much more sophisticated than you." She childishly stuck her tongue out at Shinichi, who promptly did the same in return.

"Foreigner, huh?" Kaito smirked. "What's his name?"

"Hakuba Saguru."

Immediately the smirk fell. Why, _why_ did the world hate him so much?

"Kaito?" Ran blinked at the horrified expression that crossed her new friend's face. She turned to Shinichi. "Is he okay?"

Shinichi blinked. "I have no idea."

* * *

As it turned out, the three of them shared the same homeroom.

Kaito had introduced himself to the class with a shower of confetti and doves, and the class reacted by screaming and running out the door. The only two who stayed behind were his newest friends, as even the teacher had ran in a panic. Not to mention – did someone pull the fire alarm?

Yes, the incessant blaring of the alarm answered for him. Someone did indeed pull the fire alarm.

Kaito shrugged and took his newest seat next to Shinichi, propping his feet up on the desk, waiting for everyone to come back. Shinichi stared at him with an owlish expression on his face, eyes wide and unblinking.

Come to think of it, did Kaito ever tell Shinichi that he dabbled in magic?

Well, it didn't matter now.

"Where… where did you even keep all that stuff?" Shinichi looked over and scanned Kaito's entire body. "There's no way you had those with you this whole time. Why do you even have those?"

Kaito suppressed the urge to laugh, but allowed a familiar grin to form on his face. Ah, it felt good to genuinely smile again. "A magician never reveals his secrets," he waved his finger in Shinichi's face, who immediately swatted it away.

"But… _why_?"

Ran, meanwhile, had been laughing in her chair the entire time. She was completely covered by Kaito's pet doves, all of whom seem to have taken a liking to her. They were nuzzling their feathered heads affectionately against her body, and she giggled whenever they rubbed somewhere sensitive.

Shinichi looked like he had half a mind to open the window and force them all out, but since no one was really being threatened by them, he was forced to assume that they were harmless.

"Of course they're harmless," Kaito said, faking a shocked expression. "I would never let my magic harm a single person! They're safe for everyone! Even your little brother."

It had taken almost half an hour to calm Shinichi down, which was about the time it took for the students and staff to make their way back into the building. The classroom was still a mess as the three who had stayed behind made no move to clean up, and the teacher was tempted to immediately send Kaito to the principal but one look at the doves (who had immediately turned their beady little eyes at once onto her right before the threat had even left her mouth) quickly changed her mind.

Ran wore her dove costume for the rest of the period.

When lunch finally rolled around, Kaito snapped his fingers and the doves all vanished in a thick puff of smoke. The onlookers clapped, and some even requested a show, but Kaito promised them all that he would definitely deliver once he had more time to unpack his furniture and get all his supplies back.

"If this is you with limited supplies," Shinichi muttered. "I don't really want to know what you're like with all of your supplies."

Kaito laughed loudly and clapped him on the back.

All through lunch, the new student kept staring at Shinichi's face. It was really amazing, how the one person he moved next to was the one person who could easily pass off as his own identical twin. They weren't the same at all in their personalities, and he had the sneaking suspicion that Shinichi and Hakuba would be nerd buddies forever if they ever met (which seemed highly likely if Shinichi's childhood friend ever brought her boyfriend over), but his and Shinichi's personalities didn't clash at all.

It was… nice.

"Tell me more about your brother," Kaito's voice was muffled over a large bite of sandwich in his mouth. "I wanna know more about 'im."

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Shinichi muttered. Kaito noticed that as Shinichi relaxed more around him, the more serious and sarcastic he got. It was a bit strange compared to the overly polite teenager he met earlier that morning, but he found that he quite liked the change. It made making him blush that much more fun. "And Conan's the best brother anyone could ever ask for." He took a bite of his onigiri.

"Conan-kun is adorable," Ran gushed. "He stayed over at my place for a whole year once when Shinichi was working on that case."

"A whole year?" Kaito raised an eyebrow. "What were you doing for an entire year?" He turned to Shinichi.

"I'd… rather not go into it," the other teen mumbled into his rice ball.

Ran sighed. "If I can't get an answer out of him, you never will. Sorry." Eager to get out of a depressing topic, she continued with the subject of Conan. "But really, Conan-kun… He's so sweet! He's nice, polite, and he's very smart, too. He's almost like an exact copy of Shinichi, only smaller and more intelligent."

"Hey!"

Kaito laughed. "I'd like to meet him."

"I can introduce you after school," Shinichi shrugged. "I'm sure he won't mind. He's not afraid of strangers."

"How old is he?"

"Six; he's turning seven next month."

Ran frowned. "You're turning seventeen next month too." She poked Shinichi with her chopsticks. "Your birthday is the same day as Conan-kun's!"

"Oh yeah," Shinchi mumbled. "I always forget."

Kaito blinked. "You forgot your own birthday?"

Ran huffed, "it's not like that's anything new. He'd forget his own age if I wasn't around to constantly remind him."

"What would I ever do without you?" Shinichi fluttered his eyelashes and leaned into Ran, who quickly pushed him away. The teenager kept himself from falling over, stifling his laughter by stuffing his second onigiri in his mouth.

Kaito smiled. Here he was, eating lunch with two people who had known each other since childhood, and they had so quickly accepted him into their lives as if they'd known him forever. _The people in Beika are pretty nice_, he mused. _Maybe mom was right. This move was for the best_.

He stared at Shinichi, who finally seemed to notice. "Is… is there something on my face?" He asked awkwardly, tentatively bringing a hand up to his cheek.

"Yeah," Ran couldn't resist, "but unfortunately you can't permanently wipe stupidity off of it."

Shinichi frowned and flicked a grain of rice at her laughing figure.

Without a word, Kaito suddenly leaned forward towards Shinichi, who fell backwards onto his elbows with a surprised yelp. Kaito didn't stop his advance, however, and soon the two were practically nose to nose. Shinichi's eyes widened and his cheeks flushed red. Kaito raised his hand—

… — and removed a grain of rice that was stuck to the corner of Shinichi's mouth.

"I couldn't be sure from so far away," Kaito laughed, popping the grain into his own mouth (pretending to ignore and secretly enjoying the odd noise Shinichi made when he did so). "What, did you think I was going to do something else?"

"B-Ba'aro," Shinichi mumbled, quickly looking away. "I wasn't thinking anything."

Ran looked between them both confusedly for a moment before a knowing smile formed on her face. "Kaito, do you have a girlfriend?"

It seemed the question caught both boys off guard, as Shinichi looked at Kaito with a curious expression on his face, and Kaito blinked with wide eyes. "Nope," he waved it off with a smile. "I had a childhood friend and we had a relationship kind of like you two. Only instead of her being a karate champion, she's a mop-wielding witch."

"Mop?" Ran asked, raising an eyebrow.

"She can pull mops out of nowhere! And she always chases me around the class with it," Kaito sighed melodramatically, holding a head up to his head and leaning back for added effect. "I don't even do anything to her! All I do is flip up her skirt to see what color underwear she's wearing! She's horrible!"

The other two stared at him. "You deserve it," Shinichi said flatly.

"I'm wounded, Shin-chan! You don't even know the horrors that mop can bring!" Kaito frowned before bursting into laughter. Shinichi rolled his eyes while Ran stifled a giggle.

"Where'd that nickname even come from, anyway? Only my mom calls me that."

"Really? I thought it sounded cute," Kaito shrugged. "Hey, if it makes you feel better, you can call me Kai-chan if you want."

"No thanks."

"Hey, Kaito," Ran spoke up suddenly. "Do you know Saguru? When I mentioned him earlier, it looked like you recognized his name."

Kaito made a face. "Boy, do I know him. He's kind of like Shin-chan, except a thousand times more annoying. Holmes obsession and all."

Shinichi raised an eyebrow. "Holmes obsession?" He turned to Ran. "Are you trying to tell me something?"

"No way!" The girl swatted at his face, which he quickly dodged. "Saguru's a much better boyfriend than you could ever hope to be."

"Not like it'd be that hard," Kaito shrugged. "Hakuba's so creepy he even _cosplays_ as the guy. You don't do that, do you, Shin-chan?"

Shinchi frowned. "No way."

"What about two years ago, when you and Conan decided to go as Holmes and baby Holmes for Halloween?" Ran smirked. "It was _so cute_!"

The teenager flushed red. "That was different! We were expected to dress up; what do you think we would have gone trick or treating as?!"

Before the girl could respond, the bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch break. Kaito stood up and gathered all the trash into his arms, even the ones that weren't his. "You two go on ahead; I'll take care of these."

"You aren't going to throw them at the class, are you?" Shinichi asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Psh, no." Kaito denied, but the smirk on his face said otherwise. "Go on, now!"

* * *

The day had ended with Kaito _not_ throwing the trash at the classroom like Shinichi had expected, but rather creating a large detailed dove with it. The teacher wasn't particularly impressed, but the students most definitely were intrigued with the fine details Kaito had managed to put into it with nothing but empty sheets of plastic wrap.

"I live this way," Ran pointed down the street. "If you aren't doing anything later today, want to eat at Colombo's? It's a restaurant not too far from here that we can just eat dinner at, if you want."

"I don't mind," Kaito smiled.

"That's great! Bring Conan-kun with you, okay, Shinichi!" Before the other teen had a chance to respond, she had already taken off running down the street.

Now that the two were alone and standing next to each other, Kaito could rather tell another difference between Shinichi and himself, one that no one would notice if they weren't so close: they were of different heights. It wasn't by much, but Kaito noticed that he was just a little bit taller than the other.

He was curious as to all of the physical differences they shared.

"We're almost home," Shinichi spoke up suddenly, and Kaito realized that they had been walking in complete silence for the past five minutes.

"Oh, uh, sorry about that. Not talking, I mean," Kaito smiled sheepishly. "I was just thinking about things."

The tension seemed to drain from the other's shoulders upon hearing his explanation. "Alright. I don't want to bother you or anything."

"There's no way you can bother me."

"… I'll bet."

They walked on in a much more comfortable silence until they finally arrived at their homes. "Do you mind if I stay with you until we go to that restaurant?" Kaito asked. "I live by myself, and I'd still like to meet this Conan kid."

"Of course. I don't mind at all." Shinichi took off his shoes at the door and Kaito did the same. "Sometimes he plays with his friends after school, but with that criminal still on the loose I don't really trust the children out alone. He should be home by now. Conan!"

"Criminal?" Kaito asked, but his question went unanswered as he heard the sound of footsteps thumping against the floor from above.

"Coming!" A high-pitched voice called back.

A tiny bundle of red, white, and blue came dashing down the stairs and rocketed straight into Shinichi's arms. Kaito blinked as the two immediately hit the floor, laughing and holding each other tight. It was almost a full minute later that the child even realized that someone else was there.

"Who's this?" He blinked large eyes behind even larger glasses. It made him look like a little dork, Kaito thought amusedly. He thought for a moment he saw a look of fear flash across Conan's face, but it disappeared in an instant and Kaito wondered if he just imagined it.

"This is Kuroba Kaito. He's our new neighbor," Shinichi smiled. "Here, you two can get acquainted while I make us some snacks, okay?"

"Yay!" Conan smiled in childish glee, and Kaito felt his eye twitch. Cute, huh. He could see that, though the kid's voice was more annoying than anything.

As soon as Shinichi left their views, however, Conan's demeanor changed completely. His smile dropped, and he looked up at Kaito with a deadpan expression. "Why are you here?" He asked. Kaito almost took a step back; the child's voice had dropped several octaves and, while still very much a child's voice, sounded much more mature and adult-like. In the back of his mind, he heard Shinichi's words from earlier that day.

"_He's kind of childish sometimes, though I've had people tell me he's pretty scary and serious when I'm not around. I can't really imagine him without a smile on their face, so I really don't know what they're talking about. I think they're just messing with me."_

"Well?" Conan asked again, narrowing his eyes. "Are you going to answer me or not?"

_Scary kid_, Kaito thought with a gulp. He kneeled down to the child's height. That's what people skilled at working with children did, right? Put themselves on their level? "Hi there," he tried. The kid could _glare_, he'd give him that. "I'm Kaito. I just moved here yesterday." From the closer view, he could see that Conan was… shaking? Yes, the child's body was trembling, though it was obvious he was trying to hide it.

"I know that. Why are you _here_, in _this_ house?" His voice faltered for a moment, but his face remained firm.

Well then.

"Is… is there something wrong with me being here?"

"… Yes."

That was all he said. Kaito almost didn't want to continue, but did so anyway. He had to make a good impression on Shinichi's little brother, after all. So far, he was failing miserably. Was Conan afraid of him? "Why would that be?"

"You tell me."

Kaito narrowed his eyes. That wasn't an answer at all. "How am I supposed to know?"

"It was your idea to come here, wasn't it? Why?"

"How'd you know that?"

"Answer the question."

Fine. "If you overheard us, then you'd already know. I live by myself, I have practically nothing yet, and I've been hearing about you all day. I wanted to meet you."

Conan wasn't trying to hide his dislike of him at all at this point. He openly glared at the teenager, clenching his fists. "Stay away from Shinichi-niichan."

"Huh?" That certainly wasn't what Kaito was expecting. "Why?"

"You smell like…" the child trailed off, finally seeming to lose his composure. "… _Him_," he finally finished, much less confident than before.

_Him_? "Who're you talking about?"

The glare returned full force, and his exclamation was almost a full-on shout, with a tinge of desperation. "Stay away from Shinichi-niichan!"

"I'm back!" Shinichi took that moment to return, a large bowl of popcorn in his hands. "Ran said we'd meet up with her for dinner, so I figured we could watch a movie or something to pass the time. If that's alright with you two, of course." Apparently he hadn't realized the commotion between his brother and guest.

"I love movies!" Conan said excitedly, jumping up and down and running to Shinichi, all seriousness gone. The older brother laughed and sat down on the couch, Conan immediately curling up next to him with a content look on his face. Kaito would have thought it was adorable if it weren't for the unnerving conversation he just had with the kid.

Since the two were completely occupying one side of the couch, Kaito moved to sit next to Conan. Even before he sat down, he could see that Conan had completely tensed, as if in anticipation for whatever the teenager was going to do next. The magician sat after a slight pause, and turned his head to see Conan's face.

Conan was determinedly looking _not_ at him, but straight ahead at the television, his small hands clenched tightly into balls in the fabric of Shinichi's shirt.

"Hm? Are you cold?" Shinichi looked down at his little brother, whose body was still trembling at Kaito's presence.

"I-I'm fine," he gave a shy smile, and it seemed to be enough for the older male when he shrugged and lied back down.

Kaito was confused. He was fairly positive he'd never met this kid before; why was he so scared of him? Apparently he reminded him of someone the kid wasn't fond of in the least. But who? Obviously whoever he smelled like did something bad to the kid or his family to get a reaction like that. But Kaito hadn't associated with any criminal that he knew of…

When he looked down again, an hour into the movie, Conan was glaring at him. Whatever it was, it seemed that Conan wasn't going to let him get close to Shinichi without a fight.

_Fine, then_, Kaito smirked. _If it's a war you want, it's a war you'll get_.

* * *

_A/N: I entered this fandom five years ago and this is the fourth thing I'm writing for it, lol (first thing I'm actually posting… I'll mention the other three later; they will be uploaded at some point)_

_This is going to be a mostly humorous story! Conan's dislike (fear?) of Kaito will definitely be explained later of course, but for the next few chapters we'll get to see them fight childishly over Shinichi, pulling silly pranks on each other and getting on each other's nerves. C: Starting at… Colombo. Guess what'll happen there?_

_Kaito isn't in love with Shinichi yet. He just met him! Right now he's just fighting to be his friend. Keep in mind that this is a Kaishin story though, so there will be romance later on._

_I'm curious as to what everyone thinks… I've never written these characters before, and they're kind of hard to write OTL. I'd appreciate it very much if you left a review telling me how in character they are and if there's anything I need to improve on._

_You can also send me a message on tumblr (username is 'olliefar') if I'm taking too long to update. Please allow at least two weeks after a chapter has been uploaded to message me about it, though ;u;_

_I have at least four other DCMK stories in the making, two of which (one is Kaishin, other is gen) will be posted on here, one (Kidcon) which will most definitely _not_ be posted on here due to explicit content (PM me or message me on tumblr to know where it'll be), and another (Kidcon/Amucon) which I'm debating about posting here because of the content, lol. Three of those four have already been started. One is a oneshot; the other three are multi-chaptered._

_Thank you for reading! I hope this'll be as fun to read as it is to write. C:_

_(And if anyone's curious for whatever reason about the pairings/ships I'll write, take a look at my profile! I put most of my supported DCMK ships up there.)_


	2. Round One: Columbo

"Your brother hates me."

Those were the first words out of Kaito's mouth as soon as Conan had excused himself to use the toilet. Shinichi was caught by surprise and he blinked, holding a piece of popcorn up halfway to his mouth.

"… Excuse me?"

"Your brother. He hates me," Kaito repeated, crossing his arms with a frown. "I don't even know why. I just say 'hello' and he gives me the cold shoulder!" He decided to leave out the smell part. Kaito didn't smell. … At least, he hoped he didn't. But he was sure Shinichi would have said something if he did.

Shinichi laughed awkwardly. "Conan doesn't hate you. He doesn't hate anyone."

"He hates _me_!" Kaito fell back with an exasperated sigh, lifting his arms up high into the air. "I didn't even do anything to him. Did you tell him anything bad about me?" He got up and leaned over the other male, creasing his eyebrows and mustering the best hurt puppy dog face he could, which wasn't hard – his father had been a great actor, and some skills were genetic.

It worked perfectly on Shinichi, who coughed and pushed Kaito's face away. He stared intensely at the paused screen showing Detective Samonji frozen in mid-point at the murderer of the week. "How could I have told him anything bad about you?" Shinichi mumbled. "I just met you this morning. We spent the entire day together."

"I guess that's true," Kaito fell back with a sigh. "That doesn't explain why he hates me, though."

"I'm sure you're just misunderstanding things. Conan's a good kid – he isn't afraid or hateful of anyone."

"Except me."

"You are not an exception," Shinichi insisted.

"You just watch! When he comes back, I'm going to talk to him. You see how he reacts."

"Fine."

Kaito crossed his arms and waited for the little jerk to come back from the restroom. Thirty minutes had passed when he finally returned (when asked later why he took so long, he had chirped that he used up the last of the toilet paper and that he temporarily forgot where they kept extra. Kaito had a feeling that was a lie, and that what Conan was really doing was secretly making a trap to catch him off guard with).

"Hi, Conan-kun! Welcome back! Want some popcorn?" Kaito held the nearly empty bowl out to the child, who gave it an annoyed glance and walked past him to his big brother, where he promptly cuddled into his side. The magician gave Shinichi an exasperated look that exclaimed, '_See? He completely ignored me!_'

"That's what you get for offering him an empty bowl," Shinichi said aloud before turning to his brother. "Want me to make some more?"

"Nah, we're leaving for dinner soon anyway. Ran-neechan wouldn't be very happy if we got there already full, right?"

"Right."

Kaito could have sworn later that the kid stuck his tongue out at him when Shinichi wasn't looking. _This damn kid_, he thought. _I'll show him up sooner or later._

They watched a couple more episodes of Detective Samonji before Shinichi decided that it was late enough to start heading out to Columbo. They turned off the TV and placed the dirty dishes in the sink and were already on their way out the door when Kaito realized he had forgotten his school bag.

"I'll only be a minute," he called, running back into Shinichi's house. "I'm just gonna throw this in my house and then we can leave."

He ran in his socks, grabbing his bag from where he left it on Shinichi's couch. From his peripheral view he could make out a piece of homework paper with filled out math equations that curiously said _Edogawa Conan_ at the top. Keeping that bit of info in mind, he hurried back to his house to get rid of his bag.

The two brothers had been waiting for less than a minute when he returned, and Kaito slipped on his shoes without looking, finally feeling that they were ready to leave. "Alright, let's go."

They hadn't taken two steps before Kaito suddenly tripped and fell flat on his face.

"What the hell?!" He glared at his shoes as if they were the offenders and realized that the laces had been tied together and topped off with a neat little bow staring mockingly back at him. "Conan-kun!"

"I didn't do it!" Conan clutched at Shinichi's legs, crocodile tears forming in his eyes. "I wouldn't do something like that, would I? You're so mean, Kaito-niichan!"

"Conan didn't do anything," Shinichi confirmed with a slight frown on his face. "He was standing right next to me the entire time; he didn't go anywhere near your shoes."

Kaito frowned but untangled his laces without another comment. After the laces had been separated and tied how they should have been, he looked up to see Shinichi sighing and tapping his foot impatiently while Conan grinned impishly and stuck his tongue out at him. Again.

_You just wait, you little monster_, Kaito growled, using his hand to push him back onto his feet. _I'll get you_.

* * *

They made it to Columbo with no other incidents (though Kaito had to suppress the urge to shove the kid in front of an oncoming bicycle – he didn't really plan on seriously hurting Conan, no matter how annoying he was), and Ran was already waiting for them at their table inside. She moved so that Conan could take the spot near the window, and Kaito sat directly across from them. Shinichi moved to sit next to Kaito, the only seat left.

Shinichi looked around skeptically. "You didn't invite your boyfriend?"

"No," Ran huffed. "Why, did I tell you he was going to be here?"

"No, but I'm kind of surprised you made an appointment for dinner without inviting your boyfriend along. Won't he be disappointed in you for not taking the opportunity to spend more time with him?"

"Saguru's busy with a new case," Ran explained, unwrapping a plastic straw and shoving it into her drink. "I'm sure you can sympathize, Shinichi. You run off on cases all the time, sometimes vanishing for an entire year without telling anyone." Kaito perked up; that was a topic he was very interested in learning more about.

"I already said I was sorry," Shinichi grumbled. "And I can't talk to you about it; that case is classified to anyone that wasn't involved."

"Whatever," the female of the group sighed. "I'm over it. I got to spend that year with cute little Conan-kun anyway and we had a great time together; isn't that right?" She hugged the little boy next to her, rubbing their cheeks together affectionately. "Conan-kun's the best little brother anyone could ask for! I was so sad when Shinichi came back and Conan-kun had to leave. But at least I can still see him every once in a while!"

Conan looked very uncomfortable, and he tried pawing at Ran's arms to get her to let go. Kaito snickered and took a sip of his soda. The kid deserved it.

"What, would you rather I have stayed away forever?" Shinichi asked.

"Yes," Ran laughed. "Then Conan-kun and I could have lived with each other even longer!"

"You're so cruel to me," the detective responded, but Kaito could tell from the way he spoke that the two were just joking around with each other.

At some point Kaito felt something small and light hit his face, just enough so that it caught his attention, and he blinked. He looked around for what had attacked him, but found nothing out of place. His eyes furrowed in confusion.

Then he looked up at Conan.

Conan had that evil grin on his face again, and he held the salt shaker in one hand. The top was on the table right in front of him, and the boy was pouring more salt into his other hand to fling at Kaito.

Kaito instantly grabbed the top and threw it at Conan's forehead.

"Ow! Ran-neechan!" Conan cried, throwing the salt shaker sans top on the table and spilling salt everywhere. Kaito cursed and stood up as the boy clung desperately to Ran's shirt. Ran looked surprised and let out a startled yelp as her arms were suddenly full of crying child.

Shinichi was horribly confused. "What? What's going on?"

"Kaito-niichan threw the salt shaker top at me!" Conan cried.

"Conan-kun was flinging salt at me!" Kaito defended himself.

"So you threw a _piece of metal _at his _face_?" Ran frowned accusingly at the magician.

Kaito paused. "… Well, if you put it that way…"

"Sit _down_, Kuroba!" Shinichi pulled on his arm and forced him back in his seat. "Don't throw things at my brother!"

_We're back to a last name basis? _"Tell him not to throw things at _me_, then!" Kaito shouted. By now, they were getting odd looks from the other customers at the restaurant.

A waitress hesitantly walked up to them. "Um," she started eloquently, looking back and forth between the occupants of the table. "Is there anything I can help you all with…?"

"No. We're fine," Ran bit out, suppressing the urge to show Kaito exactly how she had become a karate master. "Thank you, though."

"Oh, would you kindly get us some more salt?" Kaito smiled politely at the waitress and flicked his wrist to reveal a vivid red rose. He leaned over Shinichi ("Hey!") to slip it gently into the breast pocket of her uniform, and the woman stepped back with an embarrassed squeak. "It seems that almost all our salt has sadly been spilled."

"And whose fault is that?" Shinichi mumbled, but Kaito ignored him.

"Um, y-yes… right away, sir." The waitress quickly stumbled away, her face glowing a healthy red.

Ran wasn't very pleased. "Don't throw things at Conan-kun," she scolded Kaito before turning to the sniffling child at her side, rubbing the spot where he had been hit affectionately with her thumb. "And Conan-kun," she said in a much softer voice. "Don't throw things at Kaito-niichan, okay? Try to get along."

"Okay," Conan gave one last sniff for good measure before moving back to his original position to scoop the spilled salt back in its container.

Kaito couldn't help but laugh at the angry red mark in the middle of Conan's forehead. A reminder of his victory for as long as it took for it to fade!

Conan huffed and glared back up at him. Kaito smirked and leaned forward on his elbows. _Your move._

* * *

"So why do you and the br—Conan-kun have different last names, anyway?" Kaito asked around a piece of bread. "Kudou and Edogawa."

Shinichi nudged him with his elbow. "Don't talk with your mouth full, that's disgusting. And how'd you find out about that?"

"I saw his homework paper. You got everything wrong, by the way," Kaito nodded offhandedly to Conan, who puffed his cheeks out in irritation.

"It has something to do with why I was gone last year," Shinichi twirled his salad with a fork, not having eaten any of it. "My whole family was supposed to lay low. It was a dangerous case, and I couldn't take Conan along with me. So we left him with the Mouris and temporarily changed his last name. It seemed to stick, so… we kept it that way."

"Why Edogawa, though?"

"Because Shinichi's a mystery freak and couldn't pass up the opportunity," Ran sneered from across the table, and Shinichi sent a scowl her way. "But in this case, I think it's fitting, if not a little predictable. But as long as Conan-kun likes it, it's fine, right?"

"Yep!" Conan chirped with that falsely annoyingly high pitched voice of his. Kaito's eyebrow twitched.

The three teenagers then engaged in idle chitchat as they waited for the main course of their dinner to arrive. It seemed it was a busy night for the restaurant, so the orders took a little longer than usual. That was alright for the teens, and the time flew by without any of them even realizing.

Kaito was in the middle of explaining one of his father's elaborate shows when he felt something hit his leg. "What was that?" He blinked, looking under the table halfway through his story.

"What was what?" Shinichi looked under with him. "I don't see anything."

"Something just hit me," Kaito frowned, and sent a glance Conan's way. Conan had his hands folded in his lap, looking out the window innocently like the perfect little child he most certainly was not. "Conan-kun."

"Yes, Kaito-niichan?" Conan turned to smile at him. "I didn't do anything."

_Like hell you did._ Shaking it off, he continued with his story. "Anyway, like I was saying, we had a volunteer come down to the stage to—" _Thump._ "… To do the classic 'saw a person in half' trick. But of course, my dad doesn't do mundane or predictable, so obviously there was a little catch." _Thump_. "… As soon as the saw cut through the person and the boxes were separated, instead of seeing just a plain wall everyone would come to expect from that trick, out would—" _Thump_. "Would you quit that?!"

He slammed his hands on the table and abruptly stood to glare down Conan. Conan blinked. "Quit what, Kaito-niichan?"

"What is with you and Conan-kun?" Ran frowned. "Do you two just not like each other or something?"

"Ask him!" Kaito pointed an accusatory finger at the child's face. "He's the one who's been kicking me!"

"Have not!" Conan pouted. "Look, Ran-neechan and Shinichi-niichan! Under the table!" The two named teenagers did as the little boy asked and moved to look under the table. All they could see was Conan idly kicking his feet back and forth, hitting nothing but air. "See?" The child's voice called from above. "I can't even reach Kaito-niichan like this!"

"Sure you weren't just thinking of something else?" Shinichi sighed towards Kaito after he had gotten back to his normal position.

"I swear this kid was kicking me," Kaito muttered. "Next time he does it, I'm gonna grab his foot and pull him under the table as proof."

But of course, Conan had stopped kicking him at that point. Even as the magician waited and waited, the next _thump_ never came. It was aggravating to no end, seeing the teenagers take Conan's side over his, even though he was the one telling the truth! He never even got to finish telling his story.

_It's because they just met me_, Kaito thought with an annoyed huff. _And for some reason Conan-kun only acts like this around me. Why? What did I do to him to deserve this?_

"Does Conan-kun have a cellphone?" Kaito later asked Shinichi, after Conan had excused himself to go to the bathroom. Kid sure had a tiny bladder, the magician noted amusedly. It could only work in his favor.

"He does." Shinichi raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Since I don't think I'll be spending any alone time with him anytime soon, I just wanted to text out my apologies for everything I've accused him of this evening," Kaito lied smoothly. "Is that a problem?"

"Why don't you just tell him yourself when he comes back?"

_Damn it, Shin-chan. Just give me the number._ "Because he won't want to listen to me. If I text him and he doesn't recognize the number, then he'll read it as long as he doesn't realize at first it's from me, right?"

Ran frowned from the other side of the table. "Just give him the number, Shinichi – Conan-kun and Kaito really have gotten off to a bad start. Just let them make amends."

"Fine," Shinichi sighed and wrote down the number for Kaito to implement into his own phone. "But I'll be asking the details of what you sent him later."

"No problem," Kaito waved it off. "You won't regret it."

When Conan came back, the main course of their meals had arrived. They all decided to hold off further conversation in favor of actually eating, and all was relatively peaceful. Only for a little while, of course.

Kaito first noticed something was wrong when the next bite of his pasta was significantly saltier than the previous one. He frowned down at his dinner, wondering what had happened – when out of the corner of his eye he saw Conan flicking, of course, salt at his food. _Oh, no you don't._

He grabbed the container of pepper and poured some out onto his hands, not at all sneakily throwing it onto Conan's plate of chicken. Conan shrugged it off and ate it anyway, even as the spice started to gather. _If you're going to do that, then I can do it too,_ Kaito thought, shoving another forkful of pasta into his mouth despite the salty taste.

"Kaito, how's your food?" Ran asked, and Kaito had to stop in his pepper throwing to look up at her. "My fish fillet is pretty good – if you want some, you can try it." She cut out a piece to put on his plate, but Kaito immediately raised his hands up in the air, shaking his head wildly.

"No thank you!" He stuttered more loudly than he would have liked to admit. "I'm not much of a fi—a fi—… seafood person," he finished lamely. Conan looked at him strangely.

"Really?" Ran looked a little disappointed. "I was actually planning on trading some of my food for your pasta… with the way you were eating it, it looks like it tastes really good. Mind if I try some?"

"Wait, I don't think you really want—"

But Shinichi grabbed an extra fork and was already twirling it in the noodles, muttering, "You can afford to spare some. You ordered like three meals' worth of pasta anyway." He handed the fork to Ran, who eagerly put it in her mouth. Kaito began to sweat, and even Conan looked a little nervous.

Ran chewed it thoughtfully before swallowing it down, and that's when the telltale frown formed on her face. "That pasta is way too salty!" She exclaimed and stood up, looking around for a waitress or waiter she could complain to. "Excuse me!"

"Ran, really, you don't have to—"

"Yes?" The same waitress from earlier – Mina, her name tag said – walked up to them, quickly wiping juice spilled from a child at another table into a paper towel. "How is your food? Anything I can help you with?"

"His pasta is way too salty," Ran frowned, pointing at Kaito's plate. "What were your chefs _thinking_, serving something like that? And poor Kaito here was eating it without a single word of complaint!"

Mina's eyes widened, and Shinichi (when had he taken more samples of Kaito's food?) handed her a forkful of noodles for her to try. She put it in her mouth and almost immediately spit it back out, just barely missing Shinichi's face. Kaito would have laughed if it weren't his meal in question.

"I'm terribly sorry!" Mina bowed. "I'll alert the kitchen and we'll make a new one right away! As compensation, we will not charge you for his meal. Excuse me!" And she quickly scurried off.

Ran smirked in satisfaction. "And that is why you should always report unsatisfactory service," she said before turning to face Kaito with a disappointed frown. "You should have said something earlier, Kaito. No one should have to eat something like that without complaint."

_Yeah_, Kaito thought as he narrowed his eyes at Conan. To the kid's credit, he seemed to want nothing more than to shrink backwards into his seat. _No one deserves to eat something like that._

Ignoring the fact that Kaito was doing almost the exact same thing to him.

But Conan never spoke up about his suddenly over-peppered chicken, choosing to spend the rest of the main course silent. Kaito had gotten his fresh new plate of pasta, and he did have to agree that it was much better without the extra salt.

"You have to let me try it now," Ran smiled. Shinichi once again grabbed the noodles for her, and Kaito huffed.

"I can get her the noodles myself, Shin-chan."

"Yes, I'm sure." And he didn't say more than that.

When Ran swallowed the pasta how it was meant to be tasted, she smiled in delight. "That's a lot better! Take a lesson in tonight's events, Kaito. Always make noise when things don't go your way! That's how you get people to listen to you."

"Oh, don't worry. I'm _very_ good at getting people to listen to me," Kaito laughed. _Except just one person, _he thought with a fleeting glance at Conan, who was still looking everywhere except at him.

Soon enough, after the leftovers had been boxed and put off to the side, it was time for dessert. The kid finally perked up at that, and Kaito could only begin to imagine the horrors he could unleash with ice cream and cake.

"What do you guys want? I don't really want to spend very much, so I'd prefer it if we all got something large to split rather than pay for four individual desserts," Ran, always the money saver, said as her eyes scanned the dessert menu. "That chocolate mousse looks really good."

Shinichi shrugged. "Whatever you guys want. I'm not eating it anyway."

"You don't like sweets, Shin-chan?" Kaito looked aghast. Who could hate sugar?

The detective made a face and shook his head. "Not at all."

Ran stuck her tongue out at him. "The only things Shinichi loves are Sherlock Holmes, mystery novels, crime scenes, and coffee. It's how he gets through his everyday life."

"That is not _everything _I like," Shinichi pouted. "… I like Conan-kun too."

"I _love_ Shinichi-niichan!" Conan finally spoke up, hands raised high into the air with his fingers spread wide. Shinichi laughed and Ran cooed. Kaito merely made a disgusted face at the overly childish behavior.

"So the chocolate mousse it is, then," Ran confirmed. "Any objections?"

"Sounds good to me," Kaito smiled. Conan nodded in agreement.

They placed their order and fell back into idle chitchat. But in the back of Kaito's mind, he was busy thinking about the possible ways Conan could possibly screw up his enjoyment of the best course of the day. He wouldn't dare try sneaking more salt into it – not when Ran was going to be eating from the same plate, and from what he's seen, Conan was very fond of the girl. Flinging it directly at him wasn't going to work either; Ran and Shinichi both would see that.

There was also the chance that Conan was done with his pranks for the day, but Kaito had a feeling that that wasn't the case. The night was still young, after all.

Their dessert arrived surprisingly quickly – it seemed Mina was still embarrassed over the pasta issue from earlier. "Works for us," Ran giggled as she dug into the mousse with glee.

Kaito kept an eye on Conan at all times, making sure the kid wouldn't dare try anything to mess with his precious dessert. He had to admit, Columbo made a damn good chocolate mousse. It only made protecting his dessert even more vital.

Shinichi closed his eyes and seemed to have fallen asleep while they were eating. "Don't mind him," Ran muttered. "He's just a silly boy who doesn't know that it's _impolite_ to _fall asleep while eating dinner with friends!_" She kicked Shinichi's knee under the table _hard_, and the detective sat straight up with a pained yelp.

"What was that for?!"

"Think about it, oh _great detective_," Ran smirked, and Kaito realized that he really was lucky she hadn't taken his head off for hurting Conan-kun with the salt shaker top earlier.

Speaking of Conan-kun, the child's face was almost completely smeared in chocolate. It was a funny sight to behold, and Kaito had to resist the urge to take a picture.

… Well, maybe just one. It couldn't hurt.

Conan's surprised chocolate-covered face was permanently saved in Kaito's phone, where it would remain forever. Ran giggled and didn't say anything as she moved with a napkin to clean the boy's cheeks, and Conan puffed them out in irritated indignation.

Kaito grabbed a clean spoon to scoop up another bite, but instead of taking it himself he said, "Shinichi." As soon as Shinichi turned around, the magician shoved the sweet filled bite into the detective's mouth with a feral grin on his own face.

"Mmph?!"

Shinichi immediately adopted a disgusted look as he had no choice but to down the sweet, and leveled Kaito with a glare. "What the heck was that for, Kuroba?" He coughed.

"It was so sad, seeing you just sitting there while we enjoyed this delicious treat," Kaito clasped his hands together and swooned. "I couldn't just leave you out of all this, could I?"

"I already said I didn't like sweets," Shinichi muttered, looking off to the side. He grabbed a napkin and wiped his mouth.

"Blasphemy! Sweets are the food of the gods; the result of the singing of angels! To say you don't like sweets is like saying you don't like to _live_!"

"They aren't _that_ good," the detective retorted. "I would never equate something like that to actually living. They're two completely separate things."

"Are not," Kaito huffed. "There's no point in living without the three essential things." He stood up straighter and counted off with his fingers. "One, sweets and desserts! In this case, they count for the same thing. Two, magic! Which leads me to number three, laughter! Without these very important things, life wouldn't be worth living, wouldn't you agree?"

Shinichi was silent for a moment before countering lamely. "Magic doesn't exist."

"It does so. You just have to be willing to believe. It's no fun if a critic like you always tears the unexplainable apart with your theories and explanations," Kaito poked the detective's cheek, who swatted his hand away. "You're almost like Hakuba in that regard. But at least I like you."

"Saguru and Shinichi are nothing alike," Ran smirked. "Saguru is much more sophisticated than this savage right here. Sometimes I don't even know how Shinichi and Conan-kun can be related, but… you know, just one look at them will tell you all you need to know." Conan laughed nervously at her comment.

"Who're you calling a savage?" Shinichi mumbled. "Ba'aro, I'm not the one who practically destroys the mall every other month when they have their fifty percent off sales."

Ran's face heated up. "That isn't me! That's Sonoko! You know her; always dragging me off to buy clothes and to all these fancy places…" She crossed her arms.

"But you don't deny that you enjoy them," Shinichi pointed out with a small grin.

Ran refused to answer.

Kaito laughed; he loved seeing the interaction between the two childhood friends. They really did remind him of how he and Aoko used to be… speaking of which, he should really call her and invite her over sometime. Ekoda wasn't too far from Beika, and he would bet everything that she would love to hang out with Ran – they were practically like long-lost twins.

"Hey, Ran," he spoke up, catching the girl's attention right as she bit into a spoonful of mousse, "I think I know someone you'd get along with really well. Mind if I call her and invite her over sometime?"

"Sure!" Ran perked up with a smile. "I'd love to meet her."

"I'll call her later, then. You can think about our next gathering and I'll call her over then. Sound good?"

"Perfect."

Conan had been suspiciously quiet for a while, Kaito noticed. He didn't do anything to the mousse; that much was certain – it tasted exactly the same to him and Ran didn't say anything about the taste changing either, so he was fairly sure it was safe. But something told him that it wasn't over, that Conan was still thinking over something…

… What it could be, Kaito was almost afraid to find out. _Not if it's taking him this long to think about it._

They finished off the mousse completely full, and all agreed that it was a rather nice night despite the rocky beginning. They paid for their meal (and Mina looked almost relieved that they were finally going home) and moved to leave.

… Or at least, they tried to. No sooner than Kaito had taken his first step out of the way of tables and chairs, he fell flat on his face as a result of his shoelaces being tied together and topped with a neat little bow.

"_Conan-kun!_"

"_I didn't do it!_"

* * *

"It was nice hearing about your father, Kaito," Ran smiled. "If you don't mind, would you tell us more stories about him?"

"Maybe some other time," Kaito shrugged. "I still don't really want to think about him too much since the whole reason I moved here was to _stop_ thinking about him."

The other three went quiet at his confession. After a moment, it was Shinichi whose voice broke through the silence. "Is your father… gone?"

"Yeah," Kaito sighed. "He was a really big part of my life, and even now I don't really know what I'm going to do without him. But… my mom said that I should move and see some new scenery, and I think that it's actually working so far. It helps, having people to talk to about other things besides him. I'm glad I met you guys."

Ran bit her lip, and Shinichi clenched his hands nervously. Conan was standing somewhere behind them all, and Kaito couldn't see what his reaction was. "If you ever need anything…" Shinichi mumbled, looking off to the side. Maybe his face was even a little red, but that could have been a trick of the dim lighting. "You can come over anytime. Even at an ungodly hour in the morning. I'll, uh… be happy to help."

A knowing smile crossed Ran's face. "That's really sweet of you, Shinichi. Who knew you had it in you?"

"Shut up. Ba'aro." Now Kaito was positive that Shinichi's face was red, and he laughed.

"Thanks, Shin-chan. I might take you up on that offer some day."

He turned around to see what Conan thought of the subject, but the child wasn't looking anywhere at them, choosing instead to focus intensely on something off to the side where Kaito couldn't see. _Oh well_, he thought. _I have Shin-chan's support, and that's all that matters._

Ran had separated from them, taking her own leftovers with her, after a brief goodbye and that she'd see them at school tomorrow. The three males enthusiastically waved her off, and fell into a comfortable lull as they made the rest of the way back to their own houses.

"Um… Kaito-niichan?" Conan asked, breaking the silence of the evening hesitantly with a nervous look on his face, and Kaito couldn't help but be surprised that the kid was actually willingly talking to him now. "I have something to give you. As an apology for what I did earlier."

"Hm?" Shinichi blinked. "What did you do?"

"Nothing, nothing!" Conan waved his big brother off with a timid laugh. "So, Kaito-niichan? Can I come over and give it to you? Wait, wait, it's a surprise, so let me get it from my house first, then I'll go over to your house and leave it there for you. Okay?"

Kaito didn't like the sound of that one bit. So it was that his brain was working against his body when he said, "Sure! I don't mind." Conan smiled happily, and it didn't seem deceptive, but Kaito knew that the kid was a good enough actor to have everyone else wrapped around his little finger and he wasn't fooled one bit.

They made it back home just a little while later, and as expected, Conan quickly scrambled into his house to get whatever he wanted for Kaito, kicking his red and white shoes off behind him. "What's he going to give me?" Kaito asked Shinichi, who was taking off his own shoes.

The detective shrugged. "No idea. It might be one of his school projects; they do arts and crafts all the time. Just the other day, he came home with a sculpture of a dolphin. The top fin was missing and he says he didn't know what happened to it and that he was going to make another, but then the teacher said that they had to take their projects home, so he didn't have time. Could be anything."

"I see…"

When Conan emerged from the depths of the Kudou residence, he was clutching something in his small arms that Kaito couldn't see. All he could tell was that it was wrapped in plastic. "You have to open the door first for me to get inside, Kaito-niichan!" Conan called from Kaito's front yard. "I can't get in by myself."

"Right, right," and so the magician moved to unlock the front door for his grade school rival. Conan ran in immediately, his tiny socked feet thumping against the wooden floor as he scurried his way to the kitchen. Kaito briefly heard the sound of crinkling plastic and the opening and closing of his microwave before the little boy appeared with his arms empty.

"It's in the microwave. I already started heating it since it was in the fridge, so if you aren't too full you can eat it whenever. Good night, Kaito-niichan!" Conan laughed and waved goodbye as he left Kaito's house.

Kaito blinked. "Uh… bye." And lightly closed the door the kid had left open.

So he brought over food? The magician made his way to the kitchen, idly wondering what it could be. He hoped it was ramen – ramen always made for a good snack – but it was unlikely, seeing how Conan had mentioned it was from the fridge. Maybe a cookie or brownie or something, put in the cold to preserve them. Yeah, that actually sounded pretty good, and it seemed plausible for a second grader. Sweets!

So when the microwave beeped, signaling that it finished heating whatever was inside, Kaito gripped the handle and opened it with barely contained excitement. He could already almost taste the delicious sugar! His head turned up and he looked inside—

– and screamed.

"You evil,_ evil child! Monster – demon _child!"

As the large, open, gummy, unseeing eye of the half-frozen fish stared back at him, Kaito swore he could hear Conan's laughter from the house next door. That brat was most definitely _not_ getting a text message tonight.

* * *

_A/N: Thank you for the reviews/alerts/favorites!_

_I hate fish too. Bleh._

_I responded to some reviews, but only ones that asked me questions I was willing to answer. I think that's how it'll go from now on – you can ask questions about the story, and I'll answer as long as it doesn't reveal future plot points, haha. There are some hints in this chapter and the last chapter about things that will be expanded more upon, but I can't answer predictions saying if you're right or wrong about them. C: _

_You can, however, ask if certain characters will ever appear at any point in the story. I'll answer those! I might put them in the A/N of the next chapter so everyone can see the response as well. There are some characters I am planning to introduce later (starting with the next chapter, actually!), and there are some that won't appear at all._

_And, uh, yes, there is a not-so-subtle reference to my third favorite movie, The Raven Chaser, in here. I might make more references to the other movies, but they shouldn't interfere with the plot of this story. (I'm going to be hard pressed to reference my first two favorite movies anyway, haha)_

_Thank you for reading!_


	3. Peripheral Vision

_A/N: Sorry this is so late! We're in the month of annoying tests, and this chapter just plain didn't want to be written. But it's here now, so I hope you all enjoy! Maybe this chapter will clear things up for some of you; maybe it'll arouse more questions... We're going to experience a change of view for this chapter, and there is a reason for it.._

_Also, I want to advertise something that may interest some of you. I'll talk more about it in the A/N at the end. C:_

* * *

Shinichi woke up with the sun's rays filtering through his window blinds directly into his face and Conan cuddled up next to his side.

He winced and held up a hand to cover his eyes and slowly sat up, careful not to wake his little brother. Inwardly he cursed and threw off the blankets as inconspicuously as he could – it was spring, damn it, it wasn't time for it to be this hot yet – and cast sleepy eyes around the room in search for his school uniform.

From the bed, a small body tossed and turned in distress from the loss of warmth and comfort. "Shinichi-niichan…!" Conan's light voice gasped and in an instant Shinichi was by his side, rubbing his hair back and whispering into his ear.

"Shh, it's okay, Conan. I'm right here." It didn't use to be like this, Shinichi thought. Conan had started to take a habit of sleeping with him a few months ago for protection despite having his own room – but whether he was scared for his own safety or for Shinichi's, even the detective couldn't figure it out. He knew it had something to do with the case from last year, but he couldn't remember anything that could have scared Conan so badly as to want to stay closer with him than he used to.

_I wish you'd tell me what's bothering you, Conan_, Shinichi thought with a sigh as the little boy's facial features relaxed and he fell back into a peaceful slumber. _I can help._

He recalled Conan's voice from a few months ago, when he had sat him down to try and get answers from his brother. "_Nothing's bothering me now, Shinichi-niichan_," Conan had said with a wry smile. "_At least, nothing _can_ bother me anymore. Not as long as you're here._"

And that was all he had ever gotten from him, aside from what his younger brother had said when he finally came home…

The vibration of his phone against the nightstand jolted him out of his thoughts, and he grabbed to answer it before the amplified noise could wake Conan again. "Hello?"

"_Good morning, Shin-chan!_"

"… Kaito?" Shinichi blinked, remembering to lower his voice. Quickly he grabbed Teitan High's uniform and exited the room, closing the door behind him. "How did you get my cell phone number?"

"_We're back to a first name basis! I'm so happy!_"

"What are you talking about?"

"_Nothing, nothing. So how's the b—I mean, Conan-kun? He didn't leave or sneak out of the house in the middle of the night for a 'late night stroll' and conveniently end up at my house or anything, right?"_

Shinichi frowned as he pulled on his uniform. "What? Conan slept with me; I would have known if he left the bed at any time."

"… _You two sleep together?_" Kaito's voice sounded odd on the phone's line. "_I know brothers can be close and all, but that's kind of weird._"

"It isn't weird at all," the detective huffed, walking into the kitchen. Mentally he wondered what he and Conan should eat for breakfast. Pancakes sounded good. "And you still didn't answer my question."

"_Ah, but Shin-chan, a magician never reveals his secrets._"

"This is a matter of privacy, not your silly little tricks!"

"_You're still asking me to divulge my secrets! Then it wouldn't be a secret anymore, and then what would be the point?_"

Shinichi groaned. It had only been twenty four hours since he met this guy and already he felt as if so much more time had passed. "Whatever, I'm about to make breakfast. Why'd you call?"

"_Ooh, right. Mind if I come over? I haven't eaten yet, so if you don't mind…_" The magician's voice trailed off.

"Sure, I guess you can eat with us. When can I expect you? I can wait at the door."

"Oh, no need for that; I'm already here." And suddenly they weren't talking on the phone anymore, because a moment later Kaito was standing _right behind him_ and Shinichi swore the magician was trying to give him a heart attack with the way the other was leering at him with a huge smile on his face.

The detective let out a surprised shout and he stumbled backwards, hitting his elbow rather painfully on top of the stove. "Kaito! What the hell?!"

Kaito's expression was unreadable; it looked as if he was torn between wanting to laugh at Shinichi's frightened, knee-jerk reaction and wanting with worry to see if the other teen was alright. So he settled on a combination of both, which frankly looked quite _weird_. "Are you alright, Shin-chan? I didn't mean to scare you so badly."

"You—my—the _phone_—" Shinichi stuttered, trying to get his thoughts together. "What the hell were you _thinking_, Kaito?!"

"I was thinking that it's kind of inconvenient for the both of us – me waiting at the front door while you waste time opening said door for me – so I decided to speed things up a little and skip a few steps, and so here I am. Is that a problem?"

"_Yes,_ it's a problem! How did you even get in here?!"

Before Kaito could reply, tiny footsteps thundered above them before pounding down the stairs and appearing in the kitchen's entryway in the form of Edogawa Conan, wide eyed and looking panicked, brandishing and waving around a rolling pin like it was a weapon. "What's wrong, Shinichi-niichan? I heard you scream!"

The magician looked at him for two seconds before finally bursting out into laughter. "Really, Conan-kun, a _rolling pin_? If I were a criminal, I wouldn't be scared of that! In fact, I think you incapacitating the criminal with laughter would be more effective than—" He was then suddenly cut off, just barely dodging said rolling pin, which had been thrown directly at his face with surprising and scary accuracy.

Conan didn't even blink.

Shinichi grabbed the rolling pin where it had fallen with a frown on his face. "I'm fine, Conan. _Kaito here_ decided to stop by and let himself inside. Without using the front door, apparently."

"The front door is for normal people. I'm not normal," Kaito smirked, keeping a cautious eye on the little boy in case he decided to pull out and throw some other dangerous and blunt kitchen items at him.

"I can tell," Shinichi muttered, and then he realized what he was holding. "C-Conan! I've been looking for this for _months_! Don't tell me you've been holding onto it this entire time?"

Conan adopted a sheepish look and he had the sense to blush and look the other way. "Maybe…" he trailed off. "You don't really bake, so I thought maybe you wouldn't miss it too much…"

The detective sighed, opening a drawer and putting the rolling pin back where it really belonged. _What a morning this is turning out to be_, he thought with a grunt. "What do you want for breakfast?"

The question had been aimed at Conan, but both of the males occupying his kitchen answered simultaneously with enthusiastic glee. "Pancakes!" Conan chirped.

"French toast," Kaito quipped.

The two stared at each other for a single brief moment before engaging in a mutual showdown with their eyes, glaring daggers at each other. Shinichi blinked at both of them. "Uh… you guys?" They ignored him in favor of their silent battle. "Guys…" His calls continued to be met with silence, and Shinichi could swear that they were moving closer together, the gap between them slowly diminishing. He didn't really want to find out the wrath either boy could inflict on the other when posed with a threat to their favorite breakfasts.

"Guys!" He grabbed the back of Kaito's jacket and pulled him back while using his foot to lightly push Conan the other way. "Don't kill each other; I just cleaned this kitchen the other day." When he was positive that the two weren't going to attack, he lowered his arm and foot. "Why don't you two just come up with a compromise? We can make the food together."

"I want pancakes," Conan frowned, sticking out his lip for good measure. Shinichi noted that his little brother was getting very good at using his small and innocent stature to get what he wanted. It was almost unnerving; he'd have to set limits on that soon.

Kaito huffed and crossed his arms. "But pancakes are boring. I want French toast. Foreign food is the best, and it's easy to make."

"Pancakes aren't boring!" The smallest of the three waved his arms around in the air. "You can put anything in them! Like strawberries, blueberries, chocolate, powdered sugar; anything! They're easy to make too!"

"But _French toast_," was Kaito's entire argument, and it seemed like Conan was going to win. It's sad, Shinichi thought, watching his new high school friend face off against his elementary school brother about what they would eat for breakfast that day.

_Maybe Ran was right_, he thought with growing anxiety. _Maybe they really don't like each other after all, and I should keep them separate._

"Well…" the detective trailed off, turning to examine what they had in the kitchen. "I haven't gone shopping in a while, so we're really limited in what we can make. I don't think we have enough pancake batter for all three of us – so we'll have French toast now, I'll go shopping later today, and we can make pancakes tomorrow. How's that sound?"

When he turned around, he saw Kaito childishly stick his tongue out at Conan while the little one simply huffed and looked off to the side with an irritated yet defeated look on his face.

_What am I getting myself into_, Shinichi thought worriedly. _Please let my kitchen survive this morning_.

* * *

Kaito was very insistent on handling the eggs.

"Relax, Shin-chan, it'll be fine," he said when Shinichi very loudly objected to him juggling said eggs high into the air. "I'm a pro at this sort of thing."

"Don't play with the food!" Shinichi was very tempted to just reach over and grab the flying food before Kaito inevitably messed up and they all went _splat _on his floor, both dirtying his kitchen and wasting his precious eggs. But Kaito didn't drop them, and Shinichi had to restrain himself lest he make unprecedented movements and surprise the magician.

Conan didn't seem impressed in the slightest. "Stop playing with the food, Kaito-niichan."

Kaito pouted. "You aren't any fun. You don't have many friends, do you?" But he complied and carefully placed all the eggs back on the counter, much to Shinichi's relief.

"I have friends!" Conan shouted indignantly and counted off with his small fingers. "There's Ayumi, Genta, Mitsuhiko, uh… I guess Haibara but all she really does when she talks to me is patronize me for things I don't really understand…"

"That's quite a lot," Kaito quipped sarcastically, leaning back on the counter. "I'm sorry I ever doubted you. You're quite the relationship man."

Conan looked up at him with a dubious expression on his face. "… Was that sarcasm? It was, wasn't it? Shinichi-niichan, he's making fun of me!"

Shinichi groaned mentally. He never expected his new neighbor to be like… _this_. Now he had two mentally six year olds to take care of. "It was just a joke, Conan. Though not really one that should be made to six year old children…" He trailed off with a muted glare at Kaito, who laughed and nervously scratched the back of his head.

The detective grabbed a metal bowl and cracked the eggs, letting the yolk fall inside. "Conan, can you get me the cinnamon?"

"Sure thing, Shinichi-niichan!" The little boy grabbed a small stool and stepped up to open a cabinet far above his head. Shinichi turned to see Kaito curiously eyeing the cinnamon, which was placed on the very top shelf. Conan waved his small arm back and forth in his attempt to reach it, and even started jumping up and down with valiant effort.

Kaito looked like he was trying hard to hold back his laughter, but he walked over and grabbed the child around his waist (resulting in pretty amusing sounding squawks of indignation from said child) and lifted him up so he could easily grab the container of cinnamon. Conan's face flushed red and he didn't say a word as the magician gently lowered him to the floor, instead choosing to turn his head down and slowly walk over to his older brother to shyly give him what he had requested.

"Being short must suck, huh," Kaito quipped, and Conan silently crossed his arms as a reply.

Shinichi sighed and continued adding the ingredients, mixing in the cinnamon along with milk and vanilla extract. "How old are you, Kaito?"

"Hm?" Kaito seemed caught off guard by the question. "Sixteen, why?"

"You act like you're six."

"I'll take that as a compliment," the other teenager beamed. "I just have a curious view of the world, you know – like a child's wonder! And no one hates children. Children are adorable; everyone can agree on that." Shinichi could have sworn he heard a mutter of '_except Conan_' under the magician's breath, but Kaito moved on before he could ask him about it. "Do you think I'm adorable, Shinichi?"

"What? No!" Shinichi had to push the other away as Kaito suddenly stood directly behind him, looking over his shoulder into the contents of the bowl. "Go away! I'm cooking!"

Kaito turned to Conan and sniffed. "Your brother doesn't think I'm adorable. He's so mean."

"You're hideous," was Conan's response, and Shinichi suppressed a snort of laughter.

"You're all so mean to me; you two truly are brothers. Why did I move here again?" Kaito sighed dramatically as he turned the stove on for Shinichi, grabbing and pouring oil into a frying pan in preparation. "I wouldn't have moved here if I knew _you two_ were going to be my neighbors."

"You'll grow on us eventually," Shinichi hummed. "Though, actually, I think I have to say that we'll have to get used to _you_ more than you'll have to get used to us."

"Yeah, I can be quite a handful," Kaito snickered.

Conan rolled his eyes. "No kidding."

* * *

They finished making the French toast without much more incident. Kaito was very insistent on playing with the ingredients before Shinichi needed them, but he stopped when Conan kicked him in the shin ("That hurt like _hell_, you little brat! Where did you learn to _kick_ like that?!") and ended up pouting for the rest of the time they were in the kitchen.

Which Shinichi figured was a good thing, because he was growing tired of having to ask Kaito to please stop swirling the egg mixture in the bowl and to just leave things be.

"It's okay," Conan shrugged after taking a bite of bread. "For something _he_ helped make."

"I'll have you know that my mother considers me a menace in the kitchen and has banned me for life," Kaito shot back, taking a sip of his orange juice. "When I was seven, I nearly burned the house down trying to boil water."

Shinichi paled, just thinking of the catastrophe that could have befallen his poor home. "I'm so glad you offered your services today then, Kaito."

"You're welcome, Shin-chan!"

They finished in no time, and then it was time to get ready for school.

Shinichi was already wearing his uniform, and Kaito had already been wearing it ever since he broke into the house. Conan, on the other hand, was still in his pajamas, and so the teenagers waited while the little boy got dressed.

Kaito didn't seem eager to start up a conversation. Instead, he chose to juggle around small, bright rubber balls he had stashed up his sleeves for whatever reason. A magician like him probably carried his props at all times of the day.

The detective frowned, taking advantage of the mutual silence and falling deep in thought about his brother, the events of the morning before Kaito's phone call resurfacing in his mind.

Since the incident last year, Conan had changed… he couldn't tell if it was for the better or not, however. He seemed more alert and cautious despite trying his absolute best to show that nothing was wrong. The boy had never been distant, but he certainly wasn't this clingy two years ago.

When he came back from the case…

"_You're okay," Conan had said the moment he walked into his house for the first time in over a year, running up to his leg and wrapping his arms around it, pressing himself as close to his brother as he possibly could. His body was shaking, but that didn't make sense – he had never told him what he had been up to this whole time. "You're okay."_

"_Um… yeah," Shinichi laughed hesitantly, afraid to move. "But what about you, Conan?"_

_Conan blinked and moved back, but just a little. "What do you mean?"_

"_Did anything happen while I was gone?"_

_Blue eyes behind thick rimmed glasses widened, and Conan opened his mouth to say something but quickly thought better of it and shook his head instead. "N-no… nothing happened. Not to me."_

Not to you? _"Did something happen with Ran or Occhan?"_

"_No!" He said with more energy. "Nothing happened with them. They have nothing to do with it."_

_Shinichi frowned. Something wasn't right; about his brother's posture, his words… "Is something bothering you, Conan? I'm back; everything is done. You don't have to hide anymore."_

_Conan continued to shake. "But what about…" He muttered the rest of his sentence under his breath._

"_About…?"_

"… he_ came one day," Conan said, louder. "With you… And I didn't know what to do. I thought you were dead, and _he _wasn't concerned about it at all and just _left you there_…"_

_What? Shinichi blinked; what on earth was his brother talking about? He hadn't seen him even once since he left to team up with Hattori and the others. "Conan? When was this?"_

"_Half a year ago," the boy muttered under his breath. "You weren't moving, and there was so much blood…"_

_Half a year ago, Shinichi was going over the plans with Hondou Eisuke and the CIA. It was a meticulous operation, one that couldn't be carried out quickly without a high risk of failure. He wasn't in any danger at that point._

"_Are you sure you weren't dreaming?" He tried with a wry smile. "I know you were worried about me, but you don't have to anymore. I'm here now, okay? Don't worry about me."_

"_That _wasn't_ a dream!" Conan's hands gripped Shinichi's pants tightly; and Shinichi found that he couldn't move even if he wanted to. "It wasn't a dream… Because I fell down and the glass cut me and it _hurt_. You aren't supposed to feel pain in dreams."_

"_Glass?"_

"_He broke the window. Ran-neechan helped me fix it… but you were already gone by the time I could get her to come over."_

_Shinichi's head started to hurt. He didn't come near the house at all during that mission… so what on earth was Conan remembering?_

"_I thought you were going to die," Conan continued, oblivious to Shinichi's inner worry. "You were bleeding badly, and I didn't know what to do other than wrap your injuries. I couldn't disinfect your wounds, or heal any internal injuries you might have had. All I could do was wrap gauze around your body and sit there and hope you would turn out okay. You didn't wake up even once, and I thought you were dying."_

_There wasn't a lapse in memory that Shinichi could recall. He knew perfectly well what happened on any given day, at any given time. "Maybe," he tried, "It wasn't me?"_

"_It _was_ you! I had to peel off your shirt to see how you'd been injured and I saw that you had the knife wound from that killer in Osaka you got awhile back! No one could have that wound and look so similar to you. No one. It was you, Shinichi-niichan… you don't remember any of it?"_

_Shinichi shook his head. "None of it. And I don't think it could have been me, either. I'm sorry, Conan."_

_Conan's eyes widened and he looked like he was going to burst into tears, but he managed to keep himself composed. Just barely he could hear the boy mutter under his breath, "No, no, it _was_ you… it couldn't have been anyone else…"_

"Hey, Shin-chan!"

Shinichi blinked as a pair of hands suddenly appeared in his vision and snapped its fingers. Kaito was standing directly in front of him with a worried expression on his face. "Is something wrong? I've been calling your name for the past couple of minutes but you didn't respond at all."

The detective laughed sheepishly, feeling a red blush form on his cheeks in embarrassment. "Ah, no, sorry… I was just thinking about something."

"Must have been intense," Kaito quipped. "You want to talk about it?"

"No," Shinichi shook his head. "It doesn't have anything to do with you; you wouldn't know about it, anyway."

"Doesn't mean you can't talk to me about it. You never know; I could provide some insight you've never thought of before."

Maybe… Kaito looked enough like him, so he may as well try. "Well… what were you doing half a year ago? Around October?"

"Me?" Kaito blinked, raising an eyebrow. "I thought you said this didn't have anything to do with me."

"Yeah, well. Just answer the question."

"Alright," the magician raised his arms up and stretched in preparation for his story. "Well, I wasn't doing much, really. My dad was out on a touring trip with his other professional magician friends, and my mom had come down with a really bad fever and just kept getting illness after illness; she was practically bedridden for the entire month!

"As for me, well… I went to school. Hung out with Aoko and that stuffy British jerk Hakuba, did my homework, played video games, train my doves, practice my magic tricks… pretty much what I always did. Why?"

Shinichi crossed his arms and looked down. "Is there anything about that month you don't remember? Like… maybe something bad happened to you, and you can't remember anything? Like there's just a hole in your memory you can't recall?"

"Nope," Kaito answered immediately, and Shinichi was surprised by the certainty of it. "I'd know if I had a memory lapse. Nothing happened to me that month, though I remember seeing on the news about some guy who got hit by a car and had vanished without a trace by the time police arrived. But it didn't have anything to do with me, so I quickly forgot about it."

Shinichi let out a breath. "Alright. Thanks, Kaito."

Kaito blinked. "That's it?"

"That's it," the detective confirmed. "Don't worry about it; it's not something that concerns you, then. I was just wondering because… well, you look so much like me." He laughed nervously. "It's strange, but I thought that maybe you could've been mistaken for me half a year ago, and that would explain Conan's weird behavior. I see now that wasn't the case, however…"

"Even though I'm not a detective, I'd be willing to help you solve the mystery of your second doppelganger," Kaito smiled. "Though I doubt he's as handsome as me."

"Oi, if he's _my_ doppelganger and _we_ look alike, wouldn't that mean that he's every bit as handsome as you?" Shinichi mumbled as he stood up from his seated position on the stairs.

"Shin-chan," Kaito gasped incredulously. "Are you calling me handsome? I didn't know you felt that way about me; we just met!"

Shinichi squawked indignantly. "B-Ba'aro! I'm only repeating what _you_ said! If anything, _you_ have a narcissistic complex!"

The magician laughed and held his hands up in the air. "Alright, alright. No need to get so defensive, Shin-chan. But you have to agree that I really _am_ handsome."

"Sure, whatever," Shinichi mumbled.

Conan chose that moment to make his reappearance, bouncing down the stairs with only the energy a six year old child could have. "I'm ready!" He called, hoisting his backpack up and onto his small shoulders. "We're gonna go meet Ran-neechan, right?"

"Right," Shinichi confirmed with a smile. "She should be out waiting for us right now."

Sure enough, as the three left the house, the energetic young girl was waving enthusiastically at them from the sidewalk… and so was another short-haired blonde girl that Shinichi had honestly been dreading to see. _At least I got to go to school one day without her_, he thought in despair.

"Wow," the girl muttered incredulously as they got close, looking Kaito up and down with wide eyes. "You never told me you had a twin, Shinichi. He's better looking, though."

Shinichi just barely caught the flash of Kaito's razor sharp grin as the magician knelt down and procured a vivid red rose from who knows where. "It's a pleasure to meet you, madam," he said suavely without missing a beat. "My name is Kuroba Kaito; I just moved in next door." He motioned with his head the direction of his house. "May I ask who I have the honor of meeting today…?"

"Oh, my!" The blonde giggled and took the offered rose with barely suppressed glee. "And a _gentleman_, too! You should take pointers, _Shinichi_." She shot the detective with a level eyed glare, and Shinichi had to refrain from rolling his own eyes. Of _course_ she would like Kaito. He honestly wouldn't have expected anything less. "Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Suzuki Sonoko; you've probably heard of me."

Kaito's eyes widened. "_The _Suzuki Sonoko? Oh, what an _honor_! Forgive me for my rude manners!" He hastily moved to kneel completely down at Sonoko's legs, forehead touching the sidewalk pavement. Shinichi felt his eye twitch; was all this really necessary? For _Sonoko_?

But Kaito was obviously just playing around, and Sonoko was just soaking it up. It was a little sad to watch – last Shinichi knew, the girl was already _taken_ and her boyfriend seemed like the type to get jealous easily – but as long as Kaito knew when to stop, things hopefully wouldn't go out of hand.

He moved to the side to see Ran engaging in an energetic conversation with Conan, the latter completely smothered in the former's arms. "We're gonna work on a project in school today," the boy was saying. "I don't know what it's going to be about, but it'll probably be fun."

"Do you enjoy school, Conan-kun?" Ran asked, all smiles and sunshine.

"Yep!" Conan chirped, but his eager smile was quickly replaced with a small frown. "But I'm probably not gonna like it when I get older, am I? Shinichi-niichan's always complaining about all these tests he has to do and make up for when he was gone all last year."

Whoops. Shinichi could feel Ran's stony and steady glare on him even as he turned away just in time to avoid the brunt of her cold fury. "Don't worry, _Conan-kun_," he could hear the strain in Ran's voice even from his safe distance away. "Shinichi only has to make up so much because he's a _bad boy_ who missed so much school." And just like that, her voice was light and happy once more. "But _you_ won't do that, right, Conan-kun? You won't leave all of your friends and family behind to peruse some silly mission and _not even tell a single soul about it when you get back, right_?"

"Hey, look at the time!" Shinichi blurted, shoving up the sleeve of his uniform to inspect a watch that wasn't there. "We're going to be late for school!"

"Right," Conan frowned. "I wanted to get there early today to meet up with the Shounen Tanteidan. We've wanted to go and check out that haunted house down the street for a bit before school started up."

"Be careful," Shinichi warned. Kaito finally got up from his kneeling position and gave them a confused look. "Remember to come home right—"

"I know, I know," his little brother sighed. "Right after school, got it. That's why we wanted to check it out _before_ school started! To have a little time since we won't be able to do it after!"

"Good," the detective smiled. "Have fun, and stick together."

Conan waved and shouted good bye as he eagerly ran down the street in the opposite direction of the high school. Sonoko yawned and rubbed at her eyes – she had probably stayed up all night again, talking and exchanging sappy words of love with her boyfriend. Shinichi would never understand the appeal in that sort of thing.

"Why're you so overprotective of him?" Kaito asked suddenly, and Shinichi blinked. "He seems like a kid who can take care of himself. Why not give him some time to play after school?"

"Well…" Shinichi gripped the handle of his school bag awkwardly. "Normally, I wouldn't mind giving him a few hours after school to play. But it isn't just me – every parent in the neighborhood is demanding their kids to come home right when the bell rings, so even if I did let him do whatever he wanted, there wouldn't be anyone to play with anyway."

"That's strange," Kaito huffed. "So parents don't even want their kids outside anymore?"

"That's not it," Sonoko shook her head, deciding to join the conversation. "Recently there's been a criminal going around near here who's been kidnapping people who can't fight back – the elderly, little children… young adults and teenagers like us have been safe because we carry a lot of things we can use as weapons. See, look!" She fished around in her bag for her cellphone, which she promptly shoved into Kaito's face.

Kaito blinked owlishly before he understood what he was supposed to be staring at. "… The cellphone strap?"

"Right," Sonoko smirked, putting the phone away. "My cellphone strap is _really_ stretchy – it could probably circle once around your entire house without snapping! That's why I bought it; I like playing with it during class while I'm supposed to be reading."

Shinichi couldn't help it. "Well, that explains why your grades are so low."

"_Excuse_ you!" Sonoko whacked him none-too-gently with her bag. "I've been _trying_ to raise my grades, thank you very much! Besides, you shouldn't even be talking. You missed an entire year of curriculum."

Ran snorted from behind, and Shinichi groaned. "Will we ever let this go?"

"Nope," the karate master confirmed.

Kaito seemed anxious to continue the previous topic, however. "So what about this kidnapper? What does he do with the people he kidnaps?"

"No one knows," Sonoko continued, now adopting a serious expression. "Most of the time they're never heard from again, but a couple of families around here have recently gotten some pictures delivered straight to their house of their children being tortured, and that sort of thing… it's really terrifying, and the guy still hasn't been caught yet."

"That's why no one's letting their children play outside," Shinichi finished. "No one wants to risk their child being the next victim."

The magician frowned, clearly not liking the sound of things. "What does this guy even want? Money?"

"If it were that simple, all of these kids would have been returned," Shinichi muttered. "Those families that got the photos – they didn't get anything else after that. So we've all just assumed that those kids, and everyone else the guy's taken, have died gruesome deaths."

"How… how many?"

"Seven so far," Ran spoke up. "Five children, two elderly. It started about half a year ago."

_That's around when Conan started acting strange_, Shinichi realized. _But the chances of him being connected to that criminal are really low… If he had any information, he would have told me. And that still doesn't explain the person who looks like me… but the person who supposedly left 'me' there… Who is that?_

"Hey, _great detective_," suddenly Sonoko was speaking into his ear, and Shinichi quickly jumped back. "Didn't you say something about being late for school? We could've told Kuroba-kun this whole thing along the way!"

"Please, call me Kaito," Kaito muttered from behind the group, but Shinichi noticed that he didn't sound nearly as excited as he did just five minutes ago.

He slowed down to allow the magician to catch up to him. "Sorry if our story bummed you out," he tried. "But that's why we've been keeping all the children inside – if it weren't for school, we'd probably keep them inside permanently until the guy gets caught. But it's a tactic that's been working so far – the guy hasn't claimed a victim for the past two months. We don't know if he's still around here or if he's moved on to somewhere else, but it's better to be safe than sorry."

"This kind of thing sounds like something you'd jump at the opportunity to solve," Kaito chuckled weakly. "You know, with you being a _bringer of justice_, and all."

Shinichi shrugged. "It's not like I have much to go off of with this guy." Ran and Sonoko had already moved on without them, so he quickly picked up the pace, hoping Kaito would do the same. He did, and thus they were able to smoothly continue their conversation. "I mean, my little brother is a prime target for him. If I could arrest him, I most certainly would. But it's just… not possible right now."

"Hey, Shinichi?"

Shinichi blinked – what happened to _Shin-chan?_ – and gave the magician a confused look, hoping he would take it as a sign to continue. He did. "About that case you were on a year ago… I was thinking, and with what you've told me earlier about Conan-kun and what you and Suzuki-sa—Sonoko-chan have told me just now…"

He looked up. "Have you ever met my father?"

_Huh?_ Was the one word that rang through Shinichi's mind. He racked his brain trying to think of how any of their conversations could have reminded him of his father. He came up with nothing. "Well… he was a famous magician, right? Kuroba Toiichi?"

"That's him."

He had figured; with a last name like _Kuroba_, there was only one person who fit the description. "I've heard a lot about him, but I've never met him personally. Sorry."

"… I see."

Shinichi didn't like where the conversation was headed, but he pressed on anyway. "Why did you ask? What about our stories made you think I've met him?"

Kaito shrugged. "Nothing in particular. But I remembered that a couple of months before my dad died, half a year ago, he started acting strange. He was on high alert, like somebody was watching him the whole time. He tried to play it off like it was nothing, but… it just didn't seem right to me. Then he died, and, well… I did a little investigating of my own. I don't think his death was an accident."

Shinichi nearly stopped, but twin glares from the girls ahead pressed him to keep going. "What makes you think that?"

"Nothing, really," Kaito sighed. "I don't have any evidence or anything… but it's just too convenient. It's just a strong feeling I have, and I've always been one to trust my emotions."

The detective still didn't quite understand how Kaito had been pressed to reveal such a thing about his father, but he didn't want to continue the subject. "Sorry, Kaito," he said instead. "But Conan and I have never been to one of his shows – I've never even seen him in person."

"Right…" The energetic magician he had already come to know was unusually downcast by the day's turn of events. Shinichi didn't particularly understand; sure, he could understand the depression the topic of his father would bring about, but he didn't know _why_ they had even gotten onto that topic in the first place.

But what he _did_ know was that everything seemed to be connected to a certain incident half a year ago.

This was something he would have to look more into.

For the meantime, however, he had a certain magician to cheer up. "Don't worry," Shinichi gave him a small smile, slinging his arm over his shoulder. Physical contact that wasn't from Conan felt weird to him, but he would make a sacrifice just this once. "I'm sure you'll get your answers someday, if not soon. But you shouldn't press for this sort of thing – you should just let it come naturally."

He wasn't good at cheering people up; he had absolutely no experience in it. But he didn't like seeing the bright magician look so down, so he made an attempt at consolation.

It didn't seem like it had much effect, but Kaito looked up and offered him his own weak smile. "You're right; there's nothing I can do about it now. Thanks, Shin-chan."

Shinichi blinked; was that all there was to it? "Um… no problem," he muttered, feeling odd. He removed his arm from around Kaito's shoulders and turned back ahead. "We should try speeding up; the girls will probably berate us once we get to school for being so slow."

"Oh, but before we do that," Kaito's voice was suddenly fully of energy again, and he reached over to grab and turn Shinichi by his shoulder. "You seem to have something on your shirt."

"Huh?"

The detective looked down just in time to see the fabric of his clothes bulging outward just before it exploded into a mass of white feathers and beady eyes. He screamed and fell back onto his bottom, staring wide eyed at the dozens of doves that had suddenly materialized from _underneath his shirt_.

Kaito, that jerk, was laughing so hard that Shinichi wouldn't be surprised if he started crying. "You should've seen the look on your face, Shin-chan!" He was gasping for breath, wrapping his arms around his stomach as he nearly doubled over. "I should have taken a picture!"

"Glad you can be so easily amused at my expense," Shinichi muttered, buttoning his uniform back together. He didn't even _want_ to imagine how Kaito had pulled _that_ one off.

Kaito's laughter died down quickly, but the magician still had to wipe a few stray tears from his eyes. "Sorry, Shin-chan," he snickered. The doves had all flown onto varying branches of high trees; too far out of Shinichi's reach for him to grab at any of them. "I just wanted to lighten the mood. But I do appreciate you trying to cheer me up; I really do! You did a great job at that."

Shinichi had the feeling that Kaito was more referring to his startled reaction than the actual verbal act of cheering him up, but he shrugged it off. "It's… fine," he breathed. "Just… _please_ don't do that ever again. You can do it to the teacher, or our principal, hell, do it to _Ran_ if you don't value your life. Just not me again."

"Alright, alright, I promise," Kaito laughed, extending an arm to help him up. "But you have to admit it was pretty funny."

"After the whole _giving me a heart attack thing_, yeah, maybe," Shinichi groaned. But seeing Kaito happily laugh so hard was enough to elicit a few snickers from himself as well. "I hope this doesn't become an everyday thing."

"What?"

"Scaring the hell out of me. You've already done it twice today, and we haven't even gotten to school yet!"

"Aw, but it's so funny."

"_Kaito_…"

"Alright, Shin-chan," Kaito shrugged with a smile. "Want to race to the school? I think if we run fast enough, we can beat the girls and berate _them_ for being so slow."

"Oh, you're on."

* * *

_A/N: A lot of people have asked me about Kaitou KID._

_He still exists in this universe, yes! But… whether or not Kaito is/will become him is something you'll have to wait to find out. C:_

_As for what I mentioned above, would anyone be interested in joining a **Detective Conan/Magic Kaito roleplay**? It's forum-based, and the app is _very_ short. All you need to do is write out a sample of the character you want to play, and fill out some other things such as your alias, time zone, and a couple of yes/no questions._

_If you're interested, please PM me or say so in a review and I'll send you a message with more details. C:_

_(There are a lot of canons available by the way that we're really looking for, such as Hakuba (!), Okiya, Sera, Amuro (or rather Furuya now, lol) etc. Please send me a message, even if you just want to look it over!)_

_Thank you for reading!_


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